A large-scale, village-level test of wood consumption patterns in a modified traditional cook stove in Kenya

Abstract

Improved cookstoves (ICS) are a common solution to problems associated with woody biomass consumption. In Kenya, wood consumption, along with settlement and agriculture, has resulted in a growing deficit between supply and demand, resulting in changes in forest cover. In response, Kenya has set goals providing 30% of households with some sort of ICS by 2020. While considerable information exists on wood savings from ICS from lab and controlled cooking tests, little is known about how well they perform in real world situations, they are often plagued by low adoption rates, and almost nothing is known at large spatial and temporal scales. This paper presents wood consumption data using kitchen performance tests over an area of 3000 km2 over 7 years on a modified traditional cookstove (Upesi ceramic stove), not commonly defined as an improved cookstove, in communities around a threatened rainforest in western Kenya. Mean (±95% CI) household wood consumption was 9.95 (0.70) kg day−1 using the traditional 3 stone fire. Using the Upesi improved cookstove significantly reduced daily wood consumption by 3.87 (0.47) kg household−1, a mean savings of 37.7%. We found that household size, numbers of tea meals cooked, and distance from the forest were the best predictors of Upesi stove wood consumption in households, while season, stove age, condition of stove, and number of food meal types had no discernable effects. We illustrate how the parameter estimates associated with the predictors can provide useful tools in predicting wood use over temporal and spatial scales. We also provide adoption and use rates.